Crown of Serpents
by Baron Vaun
Summary: A long time ago, the final battle over the completed Shikon Jewel waged. Naraku was defeated, and most of the jewel was destroyed with one shard still intact. Kagome guards it, knowing that her family's namesake and the future of feudal Japan rest on her weary shoulders, but she feels something else coming: a dark and complex evil. AU InuKag SanMir
1. Prologue: The Device

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Inuyasha nor do I make any money from this story.

* * *

**Prologue: The Device**

Deep within the forest, the rush of wind through the trees suddenly silenced. A stench had settled with the humid air over the foggy creek. The birds had all scattered long ago. One deer lay trembling against the evergreen banks, and under cold, melting moonlight, the creature sunk its snout into the water. Its broken face dyed the rocks red: the water rippled ruby against its hurried breaths.

The doe had not yet succumbed to the torrenting outlet, but demons were winding their way through the muck, up the river toward the scent of the blood, that beating heart. The fallen animal had no time nor strength to scurry as a group of _hanyou_ children silently descended from the thick branches above it. As water cut its way through the rocks, stillness once again took hold of the rocky valley only to find a new rumble in the distance. The dead deer melted away in the stream as the sound of an encroaching army pushed the half demons back into the woods.

The shuddering of ten thousand armored plates continued to rattle in the distance, and hour by hour, their footsteps came closer to the bloodied rocks. Passing through the humid forests, the troops were heading westward toward a small village known to house the nearly completed Shikon Jewel. By directive of their _daimyo_, the small force would enter the stronghold at night and take the jewel from Kagome with unparalleled swiftness and brutality.

* * *

"Naraku-_ue_, I've invested my entire family and fortune into this battle, and I now pray," the man said. Between sharp black eyes, a scar showed that he had long ago began sacrificing in the name of the demon. In his forties, Hiyashuuto watched carefully from the jagged floor as Naraku's long arms slowly shifted an object over in his lap. He sat on a throne of stone organized as if by fortune itself.

The spider demon paid no attention to the flattery and pulled the hexagonal column closer to his face. Hiyashuuto could see deep etchings in the stone, places where it had worn flat and polished. He could almost see the layers of stone inside, but as he expected to see soft streaks of limestone, he caught sight of something metallic, a mesh over faint blue light. He strained to get a better view.

"I don't understand why you keep these filth around," Kagura remarked from beneath a shaded pillar near the mossy entryway.

The older human looked at the water sloshing around his ankles. Swaying algae had been growing for many years in the empty, crumbling room. The fountain poured into the crooks and sinkholes in the stone floor before running off through the castle's main structure and falling toward the bluffs. Beyond that, the waterfall stood with a thousand bones at its base. Hiyashuuto knew this waterfall as well as any.

"When he fails us, I get to kill him myself," Kagura paused to frown, her narrowed eyes flashing briefly in the darkness, "and all of his lineage."

The human did not flinch. Instead, he kept his eyes toward his master, the great demon, and the stone column so idly spinning in his hands.

"Nonsense, Kagura," Naraku said lightly. "Let Hiyashuuto continue his journey tonight. He has done exactly as promised and his next mission is far too important to waste his head over." The smile he let creep onto his pale face sent shivers through both Kagura and Hiyashuuto.

He moved against the thick, green plants to kneel before the demon. "I dutifully accept my next mission."

Naraku clutched the cylinder to his chest with all of his spider-like appendages: "I want you to find the creatures on the puppet I gave you. Bring me a finger from each."

* * *

"I have done as you asked." Hiyashuuto's face was mangled, but still he spoke with characteristic poise. The flesh had been peeled back from his skull as though skinned. Where a scar once lay now sit only bandages melting against the red, oozing eye socket. Kagura could smell the infection from her distance spot against a kudzu-covered column.

Naraku merely smiled. Between the herbs his daughter had crammed into his wounds and the obscurity of losing his depth perception, he didn't notice that the stone cylinder was sitting alone on the other side of the room.

The water had risen to cover most of the floor, and schools of fish darted through the deeper pools. Hiyashuuto frowned at his feet, once again soaked in algae and plant life. The stones he had seen sunken into mud now lay submersed in green. The long red scarf Kagura had tied around her neck in honor of his arrival streamed down from her perch and into the water. Red fluttered softly through the deep waters beneath her and into a gentle stream flowing out of the damp, cragged room.

Her scarf seemed to predict the wounds on his face, and Naraku narrowed his eyes in dark glee.

The _ningen_ took another wobbly bow. His fingers were wrapped around worn hilt of a sword at his waist; his index finger stroked an etching in the hardwood handle as he patiently waited for his freedom.

"I'm surprised you survived that encounter," Kagura seemed to chide from her perch. Her narrowed eyes gleamed with the scarf from damp blackness. Hiyashuuto was once again unmoved. He rose to let his gaze falter toward that she-demon's voice, but the one eye he had left couldn't focus through the shadows. His head still throbbed.

"I am no longer fit to serve you, my lord."

After a long silence from Naraku, the demon slowly rose. The grey and blue robes he tied with vermillion ruffled as the eight spidery arms protruding from his back scurried behind him. They idly picked at stone as the demon walked forward. Hiyashuuto was certain his life would soon end: his family's honor and blood would be poured down this beast's throat.

Instead of striking, Naraku walked right past him. The spiny appendages briefly touched the man's face, glided against the red gauze and swollen flesh. The demon saw both determination and weakness in the _ningen_'s eye. The weariness of blood loss, age and battle had begun to etch into his face.

"I must rest," the man began, but the demon was gone before he could finish.

Kagura shifted in her seat behind him, but the sound was drowned out by splashes in the water. Hiyashuuto had finally let himself tumble down into the pool. He put his back against the weathered stone tiles now crumbling against turquoise, and his black eye finally closed.

The _youkai_ behind him frowned as she leapt from her perch. The scarf trailed behind her in a sudden gust of wind.

"When the storms come, you'll drown in here, you old fool."

"You are older than I," he mumbled. "Fool."

She scoffed at him through sheets of ivy. Her pale fingers reached around the red fabric and tugged it from around her neck. She dropped it into the deep pool at her feet, and they both watched the currents carry it away. Kagura saw his face slacken as his hand fell from the hilt and into the glistening water around him.

* * *

**Author's Notes:** I badly wanted to write fanfiction again, so I decided to start with a fandom I know and love. This alternate universe tragedy has many plans, so we'll see how those pan out.

**Language Notes: **For clarity, I decided to italicize words in Japanese rather than allow some kind of false and continuous movement between the languages. Generally, foreign words are italicized anyways. Regardless, this shouldn't interrupt the flow too much. I also find a brief dictionary pertinent.

_daimyo_ - lord, subordinate to the feudal shogun

_hanyou_ - half-demon

_ningen_ - human

_-ue _- suffix for utmost respect (archaic)


	2. Chapter One: Kouga Returns

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Inuyasha nor do I make any money from this story.

* * *

**Chapter One**

**Kouga Returns**

When the sun rose over the bloodwood forests, the rural hillsides were painted gold over green, turquoise bluffs jutting out of the mist and toward higher haze. As gentle slopes moved from dense, hilly forest to red-rock mountain bluffs, the greenery followed the steep paths upward against the current. Waterfalls, deep pools of saffron, vermillion and aqua wound between low brush and settled between the boundary of hillside and forest.

"That's the one," Inuyasha leapt to his feet. "It ate Kagome's windripper seedlings!"

Miroku watched as the hanyou ran toward an old man with a sickly horse. Several miles from Sukima's exterior trading hub Ekido, the pair had been examining every traveler that passed out of the hub's gates.

"Inuyasha, slow down," the merchant called.

"Not before I get answers!"

In an instant, he had stopped the man's stride with his hand clenched around the reins of the animal.

"Where were _you_ last night?" he asked in a growling tone.

"Hm?" the old man smiled pleasantly. His rags suggested that he was of the peasantry, and Inuyasha slid the horse's reins out his hand in one slow, deliberate motion.

"A little demon told me that this crotchety horse was uprooting sacred plants!"

The old man's face fell, his smile melting into a deep, serious frown.

As he opened his mouth to speak, Miroki cut over him: "I don't think this horse can carry any cargo. Why did you bring it?"

The wrinkled face grimaced, and the young monk recoiled slightly.

"I was hoping to get some money out of poor old Hyun-a's meat."

"You brought her out here to shoot her and sell her carcass?" The white haired demon threw his hands in the air. "That thing has to be older than me!"

"I've gotta eat."

"Why don't you eat your old horse, then? What butcher is going to take an ancient, mangled corpse?"

Unapologetically, the old man began to steer Hyun-a around them. His squinting eyes turned toward the marketplace jutting a quarter-mile up the dirt road.

"What kind of name is Hyun-a, anyway?"

"Inuyasha," Miroku said, watching them hobble away, "even if that was the horse, what is punishing this senile man going to do?"

In a show of supreme rationality, the demon made his way toward a swath of newly laid cobblestone. It marked the beginning of the pathway to Sukima.

* * *

Underneath the deep hues of the bloodwood trees, Kagome's black hair lay behind her on the grass like a silk blanket. The brilliant hakama saturated the grass, illuminating the white leaflets scattered around her. She had left her prayer beads underneath the branches of a withering thistle. The ground was littered with its rotten seeds.

"Kagome, there isn't time to exorcize plants," Sango called out to her from the garden's stone pathway.

The kneeling priestess began to collect her tools. "This plant unsettles me," she said quietly.

Sango's silken robes glinted in the sunlight as she softly glided over the cobblestones and knelt. She grabbed the miko's hand as she tucked the objects into a wooden box. A quick flutter of her fingers sealed it with a spell only she could unbind. Sango steered the woman to face her.

"Cheer up, Divine One. Inuyasha and Miroku will return soon." Her smile faded as her friend pushed away.

Kagome laid back. "It's not just that." She paused, saying softly, "I got a rushed parcel from the central region: the kidnappings are increasing."

Sango let her arms fall to her sides. She grimaced. "Have they found any connection between the victims?"

"Most of them are demons, but several priestesses both young and old have gone missing," Kagome said. She broke a leaf off of the brown thistle and crumbled it in her hand.

"I can't help but feel like this plant represents our hope of getting those people back alive."

"What could be happening to them?"

Kagome suddenly stood. "They took Kouga six weeks ago," she said slowly. "It took this long for news to reach past his tribe. They've been trying to cover it up until he returns, but I don't think he's coming back."

Sango bit her lip and shoved her palms deep inside the warm sleeves of her robes. The warmth made her feel safe. "Let's have some lavender tea for our nerves. Once Inuyasha returns, we can discuss this matter."

The miko let her face slacken at the gesture and picked her box up. She reached out a hand to help her friend.

She nodded as Sango lead her away from the dying plant.

"We must stop this," she said.

* * *

"Hanyou!" The gatekeeper pointed his sword at the half-demon. "You're late."

Inuyasha pinched the blade and moved it away from his yellow eye.

"We took a bit of a detour," Miroku mummbled.

"It more like a rest break."

The guard stepped to the left side and jeered at them, "I don't sleep well at night knowing that you two are partly responsible for the safety of the known world." He ushered them through Sukima's exterior gate. Like a palace, the central castle housed the jewel shard and lay separated from the untamed countryside by three walls.

"And hurry your asses," the gatekeeper called.

"Yes, sir!"

The finest architects had paved the stone pathway the ran directly through the heart of Sukima, and the walk to the middle gate took a vivid road that twisted over farmland and over the wandering rivers and creeks. They topped the bridge at a leisurely pace, and the second gatekeeper waved his axe-spear at them.

"You clowns," he called to them.

Inuyasha grabbed the monk by his shirt and took one giant leap to land in front of the guard.

"You're incredibly late."

"That seems to be the word around here," Miroku said, straightening his clothing. "Is there a sense of urgency to this?"

"Kagome has called a meeting, and you're the only thing delaying it." He swung the weapon in Inuyasha's direction.

The half-demon frowned and took off in bounds toward the castle. Left behind, Miroku could only shout at his back as he glided toward the dense rooftops near the inner city. The inner gatekeeper frowned as he flew overhead, and he landed in the courtyard near the entrance.

"I was expecting a friendlier greeting," he mumbled.

The staff was expecting him, and as if by magic, the heavy wooden doors of the castle shuttered open. He walked inside to find frowning attendants and unsavory priests. Sparsely placed in the shadows, he saw guards narrowing their eyes at him.

"What's with all of the gloom around here?"

Before any of them could speak, Sango spoke from the doorway: "Finally. Where is Miroku?"

"I left him behind to make it here so fast."

"It still seems like you were dragging ass."

His lip curled, and he scratched his head. Motioning to her, he asked, "Lead the way?"

With a slight bow, she floated away from the door and out of view. He followed her, even though he could have easily left her behind. She took him down the winding halls until the sun disappeared from view. Underneath the compound, she stopped in front of a gate.

He nodded and pushed through the iron and into a damp pathway lit by torches, and she trailed behind him. Her clothes shimmered.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome stood in the center of the dim room with his half-brother.

She moved to embrace Inuyasha, and the gesture was quick. The priestess tore away, saying quickly, "The others did not come."

"That can't be true."

"I'm afraid it is." Sesshoumaru's usual half-smile had been replaced with a deep frown.

"You always lag, but they're three days behind schedule," Sango said. "And the disappearances have increased."

"I leave you people for one minute and I return to chaos!" The half-demon clenched his fists.

"I had to ask Sesshoumaru to temporarily provide leadership and support to our military forces. He's also acting as a watchman," Kagome added.

His dog ears perked up. "You must be very worried."

Miroku finally bustled into the room.

"So the disappearances have increased? You received a letter then?"

Kagome nodded. "From the daimyo himself. After gathering reports, they've concluded that the targets are mostly demons, but a few gifted ningen have been taken."

Miroku's face twisted in thought. "The region's armies are spread thin after diverting soldiers to this area. It seems like this phenomena is growing."

"It is," Sesshoumaru said. "The disappearances have increased by three fold over the past month."

"I want to take some kind of action against this, but my duties are here in this fortress." Kagome's eyes softened as she looked at Inuyasha. "I need you to be my eyes and ears out there. I also want you to find at least one of these people. I need to know what is happening to them."

"Isn't my sword best spent here with you and the shard?" Inuyasha sighed.

Miroku nodded. "He has a point."

The priestess pulled a rotten seed out of the folds of her hakama. She twisted the black pod between her fingers, and the demon watched it spill brown, frothy liquid across her pale skin.

"Something just doesn't feel right," she said.

* * *

That night, Inuyasha and Miroku made plans to travel to northwest to coast.

The white-haired demon turned to face Kagome as the sunlight broke over the walls. At the gates of the fortress, they hugged.

"Be careful, Inuyasha." She pulled a satchel out of her hakama and presented it to him. "These serums and spells should help you on your journey."

"I won't let anything happen to him," Miroku said.

The hanyou took the packet and put it into the folds of his own red clothes, and she watched them disappear into the mists beyond the gate.

Inside her pocket, she fiddled with the thistle seeds, taking care not to break the outer shells. When the guards pulled the iron doors closed, she turned to take a random path. She found herself roaming the halls.

"Priestess," Sesshoumaru said slowly.

"It still freaks me out when you do that." She turned to face him and realized that they were in the castle's inner courtyard.

"What do you think Inuyasha and Miroku will find in Tama?"

She frowned and considered his question. "Hopefully they'll find someone who can tell us what's happening."

He watched her turn and head toward one of the tall, wooden gates that lead eventually to Kagome's own chambers.

"You haven't been yourself lately," he told her.

She stopped and set a pale hand on the gate. The priestess was softly smiling as she spoke: "I'm just worried."

Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes at her, but she kept her expression still. "Fair," he said. "I have things to attend to, so if you'll excuse me—"

She nodded, and let the clicking of a closed door talk for her. When she finally entered her private study, the morning light had fully penetrated the room. Kagome moved swiftly between the bound scrolls and dusty texts to pull wooden box from its place high on one shelf. She took one silk pouch out and let the brittle leaves fall into her hand.

A gentle roar echoed through the walls as she dumped the dried herb into a mortar. She started the grind the leaves and added a bruised purple berry to the mixture. The paste slurped against the walls of the marble cup. Another large boom thundered through her core. Kagome stood, setting the mortar and pestle on a wooden desk behind her. She ran back to the courtyard and left her task half-completed.

"Kagome!" Sango held only the handle of a porcelain teapot as she jogged, and the sound of stone crumbling moved through the earth beneath them.

"Is this another attack by the Shikkoku no Daimyo?"

"Probably. An unknown demon is scaling the walls and destroying them. He's tearing through our front lines! Sesshoumaru has sent me to slow him down."

The priestess started tying the flared sleeves of her haori back. "I'm going to my post." She hurried to a stone circle set in the center of lush grass. As Sango let her pleated skirt fall behind her, Kagome muttered a spell and disappeared in thin mist. Instantaneously, she entered the tower, a doorless cylinder that rose above all other buildings in the city. One pristine, white bow hung under the panoramic shelter, and she grabbed it. Kagome pulled a red arrow from thin air and began scouting the entire city with her enchanted eyes.

Another crash turned her attention to the middle gate, and she watched a dark figure rise above the horizon. The priestess pulled her arrow back, but she noticed a familiar and far more malevolent smirk across the figure's face.

"Kouga," Kagome said to herself.

The arrow flew to pierce his feet, and as it skewered him, she watched Sango's boomerang knock him out of the air.

* * *

**Author's Note:** After a brief hiatus, I hope this chapter satisfies. I've also decided to rename this fic, as its title reminds me too much of "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Mr. Poe.

**Dictionary of Relevance**

_hakama_ — the traditional red, divided trousers of a Japanese priestess

_haori_ — kimono jacket

_ningen_ — "human"

_Shikkoku no Daimyo_ — "Black Lord"


	3. Chapter Two: Engineered to Laugh

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Inuyasha nor do I make any money from this story.

* * *

**Chapter Two**

**Engineered to Laugh**

As Kouga fell to the ground, a thunderous roar was heard throughout the city. Seeing the arrow pierce his feet, Kagome winced. Though her duty was protection, she felt a wave of dread wash over her as the wolf demon plummeted down.

"Kouga, what are you doing?" she whispered to herself.

She pulled another arrow back and steadied her aim at the last spot she had seen him, but silence was permeating her focus. Just as she had given in to distress, a white spell tag drifted into the air. It set itself aflame and crumpled into a fine ash. It was Sesshoumaru's signal: the intruder had been captured.

Kagome completed another enchantment and found herself back in the fortress' inner gardens. Her stomach was lurching, her mind racing against the stillness of a successful fight.

"Fine shooting," Sango said, appearing out of the shadows. Her demon-hunting clothing bore not a single scratch, but the boomerang had chunks missing from its edges. "He doesn't have shards in his legs—how was he scaling our walls so quickly? I thought his power had diminished."

"It had," the priestess half mumbled.

"Sesshoumaru probably has him locked in the dungeons by now. Usually, he will take no prisoners, but I think he has questions that need answers as well."

They shuffled down narrow corridors until they came to a long hallway with no windows. The stone wall vibrated against their coming footsteps, and as they reached its end, the rocks moved like insects, rearranging themselves to allow passage.

"After you, my lady," Sango smiled softly and held out her hand to let the miko pass.

Kagome didn't smile back but ducked under the entryway. Sesshoumaru was standing in a dimly lit room, and he said nothing as they walked down the narrow corridor. When they came to a fork, Sesshoumaru slowed as the priestess began off toward the right.

"He's on the table."

Sango let a small smirk cross her face.

"Was he that much of a threat?" Kagome asked.

"I take just as little pleasure in the hardships of others as you, Priestess. He is a threat to us all. Answers must be extracted by any means necessary."

The smile melted off of Sango's face. She was the first to take a step in the left hallway, and she could hear the swishing of Kagome's hakama behind her.

"How did Kouga become so dangerous?"

Sesshoumaru didn't answer, and somewhere inside of her, Kagome panicked for the wolf demon's safety.

When they reached the expansive back room, Kouga was laid out on a table. Enchanted ties held him immobilized, and an intricate mesh of spell tags wove around his legs.

"Laid out like swine," Sango muttered. She was sneering at his bloodied thighs, and as he racked another breath, she openly scoffed. "We trusted him."

"Kouga," Sesshoumaru bellowed, "what has become of you?"

The wolf demon's eyes were twitching. His mouth drew into a thin line, but the white haired youkai knew he was awake.

"You're so simple," Kouga finally said.

The priestess' mouth hung open slightly, and Sesshoumaru flexed a clawed hand at the demon.

"I will take your sight," he warned.

"Your friend is dead, gentle Priestess." Kouga ignored the threat, opening his eyes. They were a sickly green, and bore straight into Kagome's heart. Her chest began to ache.

"What is this madness?" Sango pulled his bonds to strain his limbs. The enchantments began to burn at his flesh.

"That wolf demon is dead. The Shikkoku no Daimyo skewered him like a pig. You'd think he'd have died a wolf."

Kagome touched the spelltag mesh covering his left ankle, and the demon shuddered. Her fingers began to dig into his skin. A pale, red light exploded outward from the contact point and painted glowing spiders across the stone wall.

"What happened to Kouga?" Her quiet question was barely audible above his pained groans.

Behind Kagome, the filaments of red were dancing faster and faster. She drew in a shallow breath as his flesh smoked, and her hand grasped the bones of his lower leg.

"Imposter," she whispered. The demon they had recently thought to be Kouga howled as the smell of burning fat rose to greet his senses.

Between cries, he laughed. The priestess let her hand rest against the bare tibia and fibula; the great evil that possessed this demon was rooted into his very bones. She grimaced as they cracked, and his hysteria grew wild.

Sesshoumaru and Sango merely watched in mild awe as she cleaved his left leg just under the knee. The stump was still sizzling from her pure magic, and the tags began to disintegrate. He was melting before them, turning into a pile of sludge.

"Imposter."

* * *

"One more set of your sprints, and I'll lose my delicious lunch," Miroku said. Their walk had been long and arduous, but Inuyasha easily made up for time in bounding leaps.

Inuyasha began to scoff at him, and his face melted into a half-smile: "Humans are so damn slow."

The trader ignored his comment. "I hope everything is going well at the fortress. With the other forces missing, Sesshoumaru will have to pick up the slack."

Inuyasha pursed his mouth, one fang poking over the edge of his lip.

"Still unsure of Sesshoumaru's loyalty?"

"No," the hanyou said, "it's just weird. Once the shard started pulsing, he waltzed in and offered to help."

"There is certainly something very dark afoot. Both Kagome and Sesshoumaru feel it. He must be concerned for the wellfare of this entire country."

The white-haired demon grimaced. "I hate to put it this way, but I'm afraid of what he's afraid of."

Miroku frowned and inspected the landscape in silence. The air smelled of salt water, and if he listened closely, he could hear the gentle crash of waves in the distance. A more temperate wind had befallen them as they neared the village of Tama, characteristic of the city's coastal weather.

The rest of the walk was taken in pregnant silence. They could see smoke wafting from the town's small courtyard.

"This must be the place," Miroku said. "They're in mourning."

As the dirt pathway pushed on toward ocean, the sparse coastline writhed into view. The trader had expected to see beauty as the mountains dipped into the glittering surf, but a layer of grey clouds had blanketed the village, covering the mountain peaks and sinking the landscape into drizzle.

The townspeople were nowhere to be found. Emptiness was the only thing they could sense. When they entered the central courtyard, a stone statue was staring back at them.

"That's must be new." Inuyasha scoffed. It was the Shikkoku no Daimyo in all of his malevolent glory, and the figure's arms were outstretched, a false prophet.

Inuyasha pointed to a large house on the edge of the clearing. It sat directly behind the state as though guarded by the man's stern face.

"I sense ningen all around us," the hanyou said, "well, other than you."

A smirk crawled briefly onto the trader's face and disappeared just as quickly. Though spring was resonating through the mountains, Tama was barren.

Miroku knocked on the door gently.

"Put your back into it," the half-demon said. A single loud rap echoed through the silent streets. "These people already know we're here anyways."

The wooden frame creaked and slowly slid open. A single silver eye peered back at them from darkness.

"Are you the Priestess' hanyou?"

Inuyasha allowed himself to smile at this frightened female figure.

"I didn't think I exactly belong to her, but you could say that."

"We're here about the missing people."

"Person," the voice said.

"We seek audience with the head of your family. May we?"

The door closed only to open again in one minute. A young woman looked back at them in dirty robes; her eyes were the brightest thing she wore. She bowed her head as they removed their shoes and lead them into the house's own little courtyard. Inuyasha watched her matted black hair sweep down in trails to her feet, dragging on the floor as she walked. Dark earth rolled to meet blackened stumps in the central garden, the remnants of the cherry trees that were supposed to be blooming this time of year.

"Your family must be very well connected," Miroku pondered aloud.

"Forgive my daughter for her curt silence."

A tall, sturdy man walked out from behind the thin wall. His black hair was tied into a tight topknot, and his eyes were so vibrantly green that Miroku contemplated shielding his own.

"I am Daichi Hayashi, and this is my daughter Sayuri."

Inuyasha turned to formally greet the young woman, but she had already disappeared.

"I'm Inuyasha, and this is my companion, Miroku. We're here about the disappearances."

"But Sayuri said that only one person has gone missing," Miroku cut in.

Daichi's face fell. As he moved into the sitting room, the men followed him. A tea kettle and three cups sat prepared on the table, and Daichi motioned for them to sit.

"I was a young man when my wife and I initially met," he began. "As a young samurai, I could never keep my focus straight. I often wandered alone into woods outside my instructor's house. And there Hina appeared: she was laying in patch of snow during the dead of winter. With my hand on my sword, I watched her as she walked naked in the blistering cold, and the snow melted around her as she moved. When Hina noticed my presence, she nearly killed me. I came to find out later that she very well could have if she wanted."

"Your wife is missing?" Miroku asked.

Daichi nodded. "She's a half-demon, a hanyou that grew up in a secluded village up on the mountain peak."

"Tama is mostly human."

"Hina is just as bright as her name suggests. She became a nurturing figure to both our daughter and the people of this village. My family spent many years believing that it had only one purpose: to serve the daimyo as samurai. My father died many years ago killing demons in the war against the Shikkoku no Daimyo. I found my true purpose with Hina, and she gave light to us all."

Inuyasha leaned forward. "Speaking of that, why is there a giant statue of him outside of your house and in the middle of this village?"

"My lord is the honorable Watanabe. The Hayashi clan has provided samurai to his family for generations. Not too long ago, the Shikkoku no Daimyo's messenger came to Tama with a warning to my family," Daichi said slowly. "I thought we could fight them together, but they took Hina as punishment."

"The Shikkoku no Daimyo is believed to be responsible for the missing persons all across the region," Miroku noted. "Many villages both along the coast and in the mainland have been struck by rashes of missing hanyou and youkai; even a few ningen have been taken."

"Sayuri," Daichi said. His face tightened. He clenched his fists as he peered over their shoulders and into the darkness.

"I understand that this is a difficult time, but any information you have could help us prepare for this threat."

"When they took her, there was no fight. Her name suggests ferocity, and that she was," he paused. "But there was no blood, no struggle-there was only a sign laying in a patch of charred earth. It read 'PENANCE'. And it is my fault she's gone."

* * *

Author's Note: This chapter was somewhat short but information packed. Kagome is obviously experiencing her own dark side.


End file.
